FOI Ref: 0026FOI2021

 30^th June 2020

 Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information

 We are pleased to respond to your request for information and our response is set out below:

 Request/ Response

(Redacted)  I’m looking for some information on unspent primary care network (PCN) additional roles funding, to be answered under the Freedom of Information Act.

My questions are as follows:

1. In 2019/20, how much maximum funding was the CCG entitled to under NHS England’s Additional Roles Reimbursement scheme?

In 2019/20, the CCG made available £809k for networks to claim against under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (£53,942 per network).

The final 2019/20 position for the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme was:

Annual Budget                                                             £809,134

Expenditure on claims from networks                       £468,262

Variance                                                                        (£340,872)

2. In 2019/20, did the CCG use all of the funding it was entitled to under NHS England’s Additional Roles Reimbursement scheme for the original intended purpose of hiring extra clinical pharmacists and social prescribers in primary care networks (PCNs)?

When it was clear that there would be an underspend on the budget of £809k, networks were asked if they were able to utilise it by pre-recruiting posts ready for 2020/21. After taking into account the plans that networks had there was still going to be an underspend against this funding. This was estimated to be approximately £300k.

It was agreed that £300k would be reinvested with our Federation to provide additional support to PCN development. Therefore, the CCG did not use all of the funding for the original intended purpose of hiring clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers as networks were either not able or didn’t want to recruit to more of these roles.

 3.If no, how much of that 2019/20 funding was not spent on hiring extra clinical pharmacists and social prescribers in PCNs?

In total £341k was not directly spent on hiring additional clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers. Of this £300k was reinvested with our Federation and this left a £41k underspend.

4. Of the money that was left over (ie the answer to question 3), how much of this was used to recruit any of the ten roles included in the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme from 1 April 2020?

NHS England had made it clear that the only roles which could be pre-recruited in lieu of 2020/21 were clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers.

The expenditure figure of £468k includes a few networks recruiting additional clinical pharmacists and social prescribing link workers in readiness for 2020/21.

 5. Of the money that was left over (i.e. the answer to question 3), how much of this was used to fund other CCG activities not related to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme? Please provide examples.

£300k was paid to the Federation for the support that they provide to networks. The underspend of £41k was not used to fund other CCG activities not related to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme It was part of the total final financial position of the CCG.#

 6. Of the money that was left over (i.e. the answer to question 3), how much of this still remains unspent?

The underspend remains unspent and cannot be utilised as the funding was for 2019/20 and could not be carried forward into 2020/21.